This week, we take on Apuleius’ The Golden Ass, a hilarious surprise from Ted Gioia’s Immersive Humanities Course. Written in the mid-300s A.D., this is the very first Latin prose novel, penned by Algerian-born Apuleius. Lucius, our hero, is a young man who meddles in magic, transforms into a donkey, and embarks on wild adventures before returning to human form. We were so captivated that note-taking fell by the wayside, much like with Herodotus’ Histories. This rollicking tale, brimming with late-Roman-Empire themes, proved both hilarious and profound.
Unlike Aristotle’s structured tragedy guidelines (see Week 5's Poetics), The Golden Ass defies unity of action, place, and time, weaving a tapestry of digressions and sub-stories. Lucius’ transformation serves as a spine for tales like “I heard…” or “So they told me…,” echoing the nested narratives of The Odyssey and The Aeneid. The standout sub-story is the myth of Cupid and Psyche, the earliest known version, which stunned us as the inspiration for C.S. Lewis’ Till We Have Faces. Its late appearance for a myth feels significant, reflecting a decadent, fatigued Roman worldview. Fortune, personified as in Boethius’ Consolation of Philosophy, reappears, underscoring this era’s preoccupations.
Sarah Ruden’s translation is a triumph, preserving Apuleius’ puns, alliteration, and bawdy humor. This farce, second only to Lysistrata in humor, is delightfully NSFW, with outrageous scenes that shocked even our son Jack. Ruden notes comparisons to modern humorists like Wodehouse or George MacDonald Fraser’s Flashman series, and we see parallels to Forrest Gump—Lucius stumbles through events without driving the plot. The book’s influence extends to A Confederacy of Dunces, sparking new reading threads for us, exactly why we joined this course.
We paired this with Scott Joplin’s ragtime, evoking The Sting’s lively vibe. Initially, the rags blended together, but subtle differences, like occasional piano percussion, emerged over time, enriching our listening. Next week, we continue with more narrative, music, and art, including Vincent van Gogh’s works, in this eclectic journey.
Join us next week as we travel east and read The Arabian Nights.
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